


Lecture 14: Flight Plans

by thelemonisinplay



Series: my housemates now [3]
Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, Linda is bad at paying attention, Male-Female Friendship, Martin has friends outside of MJN, background Carolyn/Herc, plotless ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-27
Updated: 2014-05-27
Packaged: 2018-01-26 19:50:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1700450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelemonisinplay/pseuds/thelemonisinplay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, Martin isn't sure why he and Linda are even friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lecture 14: Flight Plans

**Author's Note:**

> This was initially supposed to be about the MJN crew as a whole, but Linda kept inserting herself into the story, and then this happened. I hope you enjoy anyway!

It was ten to nine on a Monday morning, and Martin was sat by himself in the near-empty lecture theatre, fiddling uncomfortably with his pen. Not for the first time, he wished he was more comfortable with arriving late. At least that way he wouldn't have to spend ten minutes before every lecture trying to look busy.

He pulled out his phone and started scrolling through it in a desperate attempt to appear occupied, but he rather suspected his startled looks upwards whenever the door squeaked its way open gave him away. After almost five minutes of accidentally making eye contact with people he didn’t know, he caught sight of a familiar bright yellow scarf and relaxed instantly. He smiled across the room at its owner, the only course friend he’d managed to make after almost six months of university.

"Hey," said Linda brightly, setting two cardboard cups of coffee onto the desk and taking her seat next to him. Martin put his phone away.

“Morning,” he said. He pulled the closest cup of coffee towards him, warming his chilly hands with it.

“You’re lucky you’ve got that, you know,” she said. “I very nearly didn’t come in, I really could have done with an extra couple of hours of sleep, and I certainly could have done without this exceptionally dull lecture.”

“Oh. Well, I’m glad you came in. It’s not good practice to miss lectures, you know.”

Linda simply looked at him, eyebrows raised above her dark fringe.

“And thank you for the coffee,” he added quickly. “God, sorry, I meant to say that first. It’s _not_ good practice to miss lectures, though.”

Linda pulled her notebook from her bag and flicked it open to a blank page, smiling as she shook her head in despair. “It’s times like this I can’t believe you ever asked me out.”

Martin choked on the coffee he was sipping, and she grinned. “If I wasn’t so gay, I might’ve said yes. You’re adorable.”

Luckily, the lecturer walked in just as Martin was spluttering in the attempt to formulate a response to that, giving him the perfect opportunity to end the conversation.

~*~

The lecture was about flight plans and their importance, and the lecturer was a young, fairly uncertain-looking man with an incredibly monotone voice, and even Martin found himself drifting off a little. Even so, he fixed Linda with a disapproving frown when she passed him a note like they were still in Year Eight.

_This is SO DULL. Noughts and crosses?_

She’d drawn a little noughts and crosses board so that they could play, but Martin pushed the note back to her without adding anything. Flight plans were, after all, a legal requirement. And in any case, they were in a _lecture_ , and it was rude to not pay attention.

_Fine. Word games, then?_

Martin pushed the note back again.

_Please entertain me. You can just tell me all about Carolyn and Herc instead if you like, he’s not had her over at ours in a while and I feel like I’m missing out on the latest bickering._

He smiled at this note, but pushed it back towards Linda and looked back up to the lecture PowerPoint in an attempt to catch the last few words of the slide.

_Seriously. I think they had a phone conversation last night, he was yelling down the phone about vegetarianism when I went to the kitchen to get myself some evening cereal. I swear he’s never so defensive with anybody else. I’d say it was cute, but he’s a twenty-two-year-old working towards an MA in Literature and they NEVER STOP BICKERING._

_I guess you’re not going to respond? Well. Fine. Carolyn’s just as bad. Though I’d never even think about calling her cute, I think she might eat me. Like, “I’m not cute I’m fearsome” or something. She is kind of attractive, though, but I’m not sure I’m her type._

Martin spluttered upon reading that, dropping his notebook by his feet in a moment of surprised clumsiness. Linda smirked.

“I think we’ll wrap up there,” the lecturer said, much to Martin’s relief. The rest of the class began packing up to leave, and Martin bobbed down beneath the desk to fetch his notebook.

“Did you pay any attention in that?” he asked Linda as they packed away their things, amusement slipping through his attempted sternness.

“Just enough to be aware that I didn’t care,” she said. “It’s all in the textbook, you know. I’m pretty sure we don’t even need to bother with these.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s not important to pay attention,” Martin argued, pulling his backpack onto his back and following her out of the room. “This is _university_ , it’s _important_ –”

Linda rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know, students shouldn’t be slacking off, you keep saying. But I showed up with coffee for you this morning, so I think we ought to go and sit in the library café for half an hour before that awful maths module we have to take, and you can buy me cake and fill me in on the latest Herc and Carolyn gossip.”

Martin sighed. “Right. Come on, then. Though I do think you ought to be taking your degree more seriously.”

Linda grinned, and they made their way towards the library together.


End file.
